Pick better presidential candidates

The political season is coming to a close and there could be no greater relief. Both McCain and Obama have been assaulting the voter with a flurry of negative ads, the Palin bashing is bordering on the obnoxious and I turn a little green whenever I hear the word "maverick." But, if there's one thing the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner established, it's that both candidates, like this election, are a bad joke.

Obama's campaign has been pushing the word "change" around like a hobo looking for empty pop cans. The problem is he never explains what kind of change he's pushing for. Perhaps he's pushing for change from President Bush's economic decisions.

But then he wouldn't vote for 19 of Bush's spending bills and a $700 billion bail-out bill, right? Wrong. The only change that Obama would implement is more strength of the federal government's powers - something that Bush and McCain have been big fans of.

ut McCain the "maverick" (ugh) isn't much better, if at all. He also voted in favor of the $700 billion bail-out plan that gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson frighteningly god-like powers over America's economy. And for those of you who still think that McCain has conservative values, let me point you towards the McCain-Feingold Act.

The McCain-Feingold Act regulates any ad that refers to a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. The Federal Election Commission regulates this bill, which prevents grassroots organizations, like the NRA or ACLU, from criticizing political candidates during a general election.

What's odd is that both candidates claim they're going to cut taxes -while in the same breath support that unnecessary $700 billion dollar bail-out bill and increase health care for everyone. All while stomping on our ever-shrinking liberties.

This whole concept of "change" and "maverick" in politics is foolish. It's been argued since America's first contested election. Of the two major presidential candidates neither of them stands for the people, but both stand for politics as usual.

Downtown shares blueprints for success; part of cool city program

The City of Hillsdale received a $20,000 grant to revitalize its downtown area. Administrators are currently working with survey company HyettPalma, Inc., to determine how and when to spend that money.

Local businesses hope the $40,000 plan (the grant plus $20,000 from the city itself) will help them target untapped markets and give students and locals more of what they want. Hyett suggested that businesses find a relationship between the community and the college and amplify it.

"The revitalization plan for the downtown will determine what things we can do better," said Aimee England, manager of Volume One book store. "It'll tell us things to do to make downtown better, one of the things could be to work with the college more, or to have a tailgate for when the College has homecoming."

On Oct. 7, 10 Hillsdale College students comprised a focus group as part of HyettPalma's study. The hour-long survey asked students how often they use downtown Hillsdale's services, such as food, office, service businesses and at what time they're used.

"A good suggestion that came out of the focus group is enhance the linkage and enhance the walking and biking environment," said Doyle Hyett, HyettPalma owner.

Hyett said students like to explore off-campus when they can, and that's when a downtown comes into play: if the downtown opens further to students, its economy will boom. Toward this end, Hyett suggested that new restaurants and bars open until early morning and walking areas should welcome, with plenty of lights guiding the way.

City officials will present explicit plan details at the Dec. 1 meeting, picking about five "top priority" items to implement quickly, said Christine Bowman, the city's economic development director.

"It's a five-year strategic plan for downtown.," she said "It'll tell us what types of businesses downtown needs."

Bowman also said it'll help determine what kind of events can be held and when the best time to hold them is.

Half the $40,000 for improvements comes from a Michigan State Housing Development grant given to 11 Michigan cities as part of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's Cool City Initiative.

Hyett said he works with the Cool City program to keep students in Michigan.

Jonesville participated in the program, consulting with HyettPalma. According to Hyett, the economics for downtowns is simple: if you offer a good product with good service, people will keep coming back.

"[Jonesville has] cleaned their act up. They've cleaned up Main Street and put in more lighting and it's got good dining at relatively late hours," Hyett said. "Jonesville is giving the people what they want and they've done a really good job of cleaning up their environment."

HyettPalma will talk to business owners and survey available kinds of businesses, how much space is available downtown, how much is occupied and how much is taxable.

England hopes the plan will help bridge the M-99 gap separating college students from downtown Hillsdale.

"We feel that the highway is a line that can't be crossed," she said. "We don't want [students] driving to Ann Arbor for entertainment. If you want a greasy spoon joint that's open at three in the morning, tell us."

HyettPalma will announce the results of its survey on Dec. 1 at the Hillsdale Community Library.

Recommended: Articles that may interest you

You might like:

• Ymail Sign-In (The Commentator)
• Knowing The Flu Cycle (The Hilltop)
• Bands shine, raise money (The Collegian - Hillsdale RSS)
• Portraits by a young artist (The Collegian - Hillsdale RSS)

Coalition for Peace and Justice protests war, unites political parties in Hillsdale County

Sarah DeRose-Wilson, 17, sits on the curb near the Hillsdale County Courthouse. She throws up her peace sign as another car goes by. With another Saturday comes another vigil, conducted by the Hillsdale County Coalition for Peace and Justice, protesting the war in Iraq.

The coalition began in 2002, the same week the U.S. invaded Iraq, when Bob and Carol Ball organized a protest at the courthouse.

"A group of us got together that thought the war was wrong. We were of various backgrounds and were against the war, that's sort of how we came together," Carol Ball said. "Even though we have different views on a lot of different things we still come together under one umbrella."

In the early days, sometimes as many as 20 people would attend the vigil.

Though attendance numbers have since declined, coalition members still stand outside near the courthouse every Saturday, holding signs that protest President George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

"We all have one cause that unifies us, and it's this stupid war," Doug Barker said, as passing cars honked at him.

Barker, a local window factory worker and coalition member, doesn't consider himself a radical. He simply wants an end to the war in Iraq.

"I personally don't think it was justified going in there," said Barker. "Men and women are dying over there for nothing. So a few people can make a few extra bucks, a few select people; a few corporations, oil companies, defense contractors, banks."

When the vigil first began coalition members were met with hostilities. Barker said most angry motorists just wave their middle fingers, but in one instance a pickup driver threw a pop can at a child who was at the vigil.

But as the war in Iraq dragged on the public's opinion toward the coalition changed.

"Well, people don't throw bottles at you anymore," said Isaiah DeRose-Wilson, a small-business owner and Sarah's brother.

"We've also had people stop and bring us hot chocolate in the winter when it's really cold," said Katja Szarafinski a small business owner and German national.

While the coalition's primary purpose is still protesting the war in Iraq, it has evolved into a social and political discussion group as well. It occasionally holds movie nights in the Hillsdale Public Library, at which it has featured such films as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Persepolis."

But the coalition's gem is its yearly event: the Peacefest.

It started in October 2002 in the Hillsdale County Courthouse parking lot; they've since moved it to the Carl Fast Park in Jonesville and switched the date to early August.

Richard Wunsch, owner of Volume One Books, said it features a mix of speakers and local musicians every year.

"It's fun," said Peter Cromwell, a 1978 Hillsdale College alumnus and the Peacefest organizer. "Because we get different folks every year and you never know who will show up."

For several years the festival has hosted groups like the Republicans for peace, Moratorium on Foreclosures, and recently, the Michigan Libertarian candidate for Senate, Scotty Bowman.

The group meets on the last Thursday of every month at Volume One Books. About 15 active members usually attend, though family members, friends and newcomers are always welcome, Wunsch said.

Auto Makers: before and after crash

The recent financial bailouts approved by Congress have given manufactures a reason to ask for federal loans. The latest requests are coming from Detroit's Big Three auto manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. The bailout loan requests started at $25 billion, but now the automakers are asking for $34 billion.

The requested $34 billion would help the automakers restructure while avoiding Chapter Seven bankruptcy, the form that oversees liquidation. Taxpayers would ultimately foot the bill, and to make up for it, the Big Three have told Congress that they will pay off the loan, make pay cuts for executives and sell off car brands such as Pontiac and Saturn. Ford CEO Alan Mulally and GM CEO Rick Wagoner said they'd accept a $1 yearly salary if they borrowed money from the government.

Congress will return next week to vote on the proposed loan package.

"The liquidation of the Detroit-based auto companies would have serious negative repercussions for the entire U.S. economy," United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said in an address to the Committee on Financial Services on Nov. 19. "Almost four percent of our nation's GDP is related to the auto industry, and almost 10 percent of our industrial production by value."

Gettelfinger added that if the bailout failed, the national economy would continue to collapse while unemployment in Michigan and abroad would spiral higher.

"Based on the reports that the manufactures are telling us, they'd run out of money in 2009," said Bruce Belzowski, the associate director of Transportation Research Unit at the University of Michigan.

"Once government gets started in this thing, there's no bright line saying where it stops," said Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram. "The question is if you were to loan GM the money, is it going to take longer for them to be able to become profitable than if you just had them go bankrupt."

Instead of waiting for a federal loan, the automakers could still file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would allow them to restructure both management contracts with unions within their companies. However, Chapter 11 bankruptcy still requires massive amounts of money.

"The cost of restructuring is not free," said Belzowski. "It will cost them a lot and the workers a lot. And there is no reason to believe they could get money for Chapter 11."

Daniel Ikension, Associate Director of Center for Trade Policy studies at the Cato Institute, said he did not know who would fund the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but suggested banks or equity loaners may foot the bill.

But restructuring the Big Three may not be that easy.

"You can take the best manager in the world - I don't know if they could get GM to make it with the legacy costs they have. They're losing money on every vehicle," Wolfram said. "Those contracts have changed," said Belzowski. "Those contracts have changed significantly in 2007 the go into full fledged action in 2010. So labor contracts are not an issue at this stage."

But unions are what cause the problems to begin with, Ikension said, "Let's say that I'm an auto worker on the line, and I break a wrench. I know how to fix the wrench, but I can't fix it due to the union. Instead, I have to wait for another guy to come down and fix it for me."

Ikension said that the 2007 negations were a step in the right direction, but union needs to agree to the elimination of work rules and be comfortable with pay cuts in order for the Big Three to remain competitive in a fast market.

Gettelfinger said the UAW is open to reopening talks on union contracts.

Wolfram said, "If you want the market to turn around quickly then you need to get resources out of the hand of people who are making mistakes, and put them in the hands of people who are less likely to do so."

Black holes and diplomas: Astronomer reflects on time at Hillsdale College

On Sunday evening, Coleman Miller, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Maryland, juggled beanbags on stage in Phillips Auditorium. The packed room watched him intently, not for his juggling prowess, but to learn about the eccentric patterns of multi-starred systems and how stars are shot out of their system.

Miller visited Hillsdale College to deliver a presentation on "The Mysteries of Black Holes." Though he graduated here 25 years ago, he is only 37. He started college at the age of 15.

"It certainly was an interesting experience," he said. "I already knew one of the students, Jim Hunt. He was on the football team and a basketball coach for a summer camp."

Hunt introduced Miller to other football players and Miller quickly became one of the most protected students on campus.

In the early '80s, the physics department only had two professors: Jim Peters and Paul Lucas. Peters, Miller's faculty advisor, had Miller in most of his classes.

"I believed the students liked Cole," Peters said. "He loves people and people liked to have him around."

Miller grew up in nearby Reading Township and commuted to Hillsdale College. He recalled triggering the maternal instincts of the college women. He noticed that as the girls would ask him questions after a large class, their boyfriends would asses the situation and twist it to their advantage.

But Miller's age earned him no special academic treatment, with one exception: chemistry lab. He took the class like everyone else, just not around other students.

"I think the potential problems of a 12-year-old in a lab and near explosives worried some," Miller said.

As for adjusting to college life, Miller said he had a fairly easy time by being friendly and trying not to take himself too seriously. He played on intramural football and basketball teams, and had a near-championship run with a Delta Sigma Phi basketball team.

Miller graduated summa cum laude in the spring of 1984, with majors in mathematics and physics. That year, Malcolm Forbes was the guest speaker, and with an assembled crowd of about 2,000 people attending the ceremonies, Miller walked up to receive his diploma.

"It was an extremely emotional moment for me, because when I went up to get my degree, they gave me a standing ovation, which I felt really great about," Miller said. "It meant that they really accepted me, not just as some curiosity, but as somebody that they felt as a friend. It was probably the most powerful moment in my life thus far."

After graduating, Miller moved onto graduate school at the age of 16, and when he turned 21 in 1990, he received a PhD. He couldn't teach as a professor until he took up a post-doctoral position, but in 1999 he received a professorship at the University of Maryland, where he remains to this day.

His return to campus to lecture on black holes attracted attention from students and the outside community. Nicholas Payne, a student in the seventh grade at Hillsdale Academy, enjoyed the presentation.

"I thought he was a great speaker." Payne said. "He knew what he was talking about, and wasn't a dry, plain information professor. He kept his audience interested."

Miller's active demonstrations ranged from showing the effects of gravity without air resistance, to showing how waves travel the closer they get to the event horizon of a black hole.

His video demonstrations were no less engaging. As he played a video, two ghostly representations of galaxies traveled across the screen and passed through each other and then twisted themselves into abstract art as they were pulled back to each other over and over again.

Miller ended the presentation by discussing the possibility of finding gravitational waves, which would physically prove that black holes exist. Currently, he is involved in two experiments attempting to find these particles.

"This is an extremely exciting time to study black holes," he said. "Just within the last four years it has been possible for the first time to simulate, fully on a computer, what happens when two black holes spiral into each other: a full solution to the Einstein equation, a challenging enterprise."

Campus Catholics argue Latin Mass is worth the drive

Every Sunday, thousands of Catholics celebrate Mass. Most celebrate the Novus Ordo, or the New Order Mass, established in 1969. But a growing number of Catholics are attending the traditional Mass in Latin, called the Tridentine.

Junior Raymond Spiotta and sophomore Eric Jensen attend the Tridentine on a regular basis.

Although Jensen hasn't taken Latin, he understands the Mass due to gestures made by the priest and missals with English translations. But both Jensen and Spiotta attend the Tridentine Mass so often that they've committed the hymns to memory.

"Sometimes we go to Detroit," Spiotta said. "We also go to the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in Lansing and in Detroit."

Spiotta and his friends seek out these churches looking for something deeper. They said they attend the Tridentine Mass not because of the novelty but to save their immortal souls. They consider the modern Mass a fabrication made up by Protestant influence.

Jensen, scratching his thick five o'clock shadow, said the Novus Ordo seems like a submission by the church to man, something that should never happen.

"The traditional Mass was to show that man's purpose was not to make authority, but to submit to it," Jensen said.

Spiotta agreed and explained how the church's faith and liturgy are intertwined. Changing one damages the other. To protect the purity of their own faith, he and his friends sought pure liturgy.

"We believe that we should pass on what was given to us," Spiotta said.

Sophomore Evan Williams said that the Tridentine Mass was passed down from St. Peter, who was inspired by the Holy Ghost.

They said the crux of the argument against the Novus Ordo is its attempt to democratize Mass.

For example, in Tridentine Mass, the priest faces the altar with the rest of the congregation. In Novus Ordo, he faces the congregation and preaches to them.

In Tridentine Mass, Catholics kneel to receive the Eucharist on their tongue, and in Novus Ordo, they handle the body of Christ in their hands.

Freshman Danielle Rose said she attended a Latin Mass once for a wedding. Noting its length and language, Rose said she would attend another Latin Mass only for special ceremonies. For now, she prefers the Novus Ordo.

"You get more out of it, instead of going through the motions and not understanding what you're doing," Rose said.

Charles Le June, a former Hillsdale student, said the attendee doesn't need to understand what is being said.

"The whole point of the Mass is to gain those graces from the sacrifice," Le June said. "I mean somebody with an impaired intellect, somebody who's illiterate, somebody who is deaf can still receive those graces."

Spiotta agreed.

"It's not necessary for them to know what the priest is doing, because they know what the priest is doing in the larger sense," he said. "The priest is going before God."

Williams said most of the missals have translations for the uninitiated, but the chants are so short that most people can memorize them.

Most Tridentine Masses last about an hour to an hour and a half; however, Le June said he has attended Masses that have lasted from three to five hours during celebrations.

Spiotta referred to a quote by Pope Benedict XVI. The pope - then Cardinal Ratzinger - referred the Novus Ordo as "complete fabrication… a banal, on-the-spot product."

And they all agreed. Spiotta argued that liturgy is not invented. Instead, it is carried on.

Hillsdale's 911 service appears $120k in debt

In three weeks, Hillsdale County residents will vote on whether or not to bail the county's 911 emergency service out of its $120,000 debt by increasing the monthly surcharge for each taxpayer.

The Hillsdale City Council approved a ballot for the Feb. 24 special election during its Monday night meeting. The ballot asks its voters if the county should increase the rate from $1.20 to $3 a month. City Clerk Park Hayes said it's unlikely that the rate would go up that high, but an initial increase to $2.25 would help solve the problem.

Hayes said most counties in Michigan have a surcharge for 911 services. Hillsdale County had a $1.75 surcharge. However, Michigan legislature recently passed a law lowering the surcharge to $1.20. Because of this, the Hillsdale 911 service have been bleeding over $20,000 a month since Aug. 2008.

Voters will also decide whether or not the county levies an operational surcharge on all devices capable of calling 911, which includes cell phones, landlines and computers.

The council also renewed the city's annual contract with Domestic Harmony, a non-profit organization that provides shelter and counseling for domestic abuse victims. The city will give it $5,500 for the next year's operating costs.

Last year Domestic Harmony received more than 800 calls, 65 percent of which came from inside Hillsdale's city limits. The organization has maintained a contract with Hillsdale since 2000.

Finally, Karri Doty, president of the Hillsdale County Chamber of Commerce, presented an official visitor's guide to Hillsdale County. Doty said the guide can be found at 14 visitor centers throughout the state and online at www.hillsdalecountychamber.com.